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Sunday, 31 March 2013

I really like yellow. I like it so much I'm going to do another post all about it. It's a difficult colour to wear, but all the more impressive if you can pull it off.

Yellow is sunshine, yellow is 'get ready', yellow radioactive, yellow is... lead(II) iodide. So stuff little black dresses - I would love a little yellow dress, woven from sunbeams for spring. After all of last weekend's snow, this Easter here in UK is delightfully sunny, though I am spending my time on the floor with cramps so can't enjoy it. But I hope you're having a pleasant, pain-free Easter.

For these outfit sets I tried to work around the theme of spring, using the most interesting footwear I could find.

I'm not really into pointy shoes and they could be really ugly IRL, but as a novelty, I think these pencil pumps are really hilarious. Going with the librarian theme, I added some book earrings. Daffodils to me are the herald for spring round here, because they're always the flowers I notice most when they come out, because they're so numerous and so bright. The stalks and leaves are starting to grow quite tall now.

When I come out of school at five in the evening, it's nice to see the sun go down, rather than walk out into blackness. The days are getting longer, but I've always found sunset to be rather sad, especially in late summer. The end of another day, probably wasted, knowing me...

This final set is probably more summer than spring, and it'll be a long time yet until the bees start coming out, but one must look forward to the future. Irregular Choice has some really awesome shoe designs - I really enjoyed looking through the site.

Whether it be spring, summer, autumn or winter, yellow can work in any season. Though it's a colour more associated with the warmer months, I find a rich mustard yellow to be quite visually warming in cold weather. (I've recently started putting generous amounts of Dijon mustard into my lunchtime sandwiches, and boy, does it taste good.)

Friday, 29 March 2013

Glad it's Easter? One day in and I've already had an emotional breakdown. I found out that I never really understood ratios, and I cried. I'm studying maths and I didn't even get ratios. I hope you've had a nicer day than me.

This is probably one of my granniest looks, but it's one of my favourites, especially as I get to show off my choker. I wish I had a slightly more interesting top to tuck into my skirt, but never mind!

It's getting a bit warm for so many layers of socks now, which makes me sad because I really love layering. But having boiling feet is not cool either, so I will just have to lay off the socks a little.

Wednesday, 27 March 2013

Today I have for you just a quick interview of a girl from Hong Kong with a fresh, versatile, and playful style. I especially like the colour schemes of her looks - scrolling through her Lookbook, there's a lot of yellow and burgundy and teal, which I just love. This is Prisca E. from Mochaccinoland!

3. Which of your looks is your personal favourite at the moment?Mint Romance. It's very simple, just a sweater over a midi tulle skirt. Midi tulle skirts just make every outfits feminine and romantic.Knits with tulle is a rare combination but I think you really pulled it off. I like the detail of the necklace too.

4. What are your favourite colours to wear, and why?
Mustardy yellow, burgundy and mint. I like to wear rich colours in fall and winter, and pastels in the summer.I love the idea of dressing in warm colours in the colder months, and cool colours in high temperatures.

5. What do you think of the street fashion in Hong Kong where you live?
The street fashion in Hong Kong is very interesting as it is a very cosmopolitan city so you get to see many different fashion styles on the street. For example, there are a handful who are very much influenced by Japanese and Korean fashion. There are also pockets of individuals whose styles are more Americanised and European-influenced. And there are also those who take the cues from both the East and the West.

Saturday, 23 March 2013

My mum said that my late grandmother didn't mind rain and didn't mind cold, but absolutely hated wind. Being caught outside on a chilly, windy day without a scarf truly is a most unhappy experience, but scarves can have other uses too.

Friday, 22 March 2013

Have you had a pleasant working week? Just a quick, ugly outfit post today, just to show you my birthday present, a finale to my series of leatherjacket posts this week. I am just dying to wear it outside, but on the other hand I'd rather not gas myself by trying to spray it with a waterproofing spray indoors... The paint is going to come off one day and I'm determined to make that day as late as possible.

Jacket: River Island

Top: M&S

Skirt: Matalan

Boots: Doc Martens

There was a little snow this morning, so to my joy, school was cancelled. I got sick of biology revision - meiosis is such a bitch sometimes - so I drew Melia from Xenoblade Chronicles instead. Isn't she the prettiest? (She will also kick your butt out of Bionis if you get on the wrong end of her DoT attacks.)

If you've played the game, you'll probably know the cutscene I took the reference screenshot from.

Wednesday, 20 March 2013

I am just sickening. Everyone else has one, and I was jealous. It's my birthday on Friday and I asked for the top-left jacket and it is gorgeous.

But even this style of biker jacket in faux leather are around £50 (± £20) on the high street. Real leather jackets are at least twice that amount. Some are quite obviously plastic and others are not, but researching these jackets made me question my own obsession with things that look like leather having to be leather.

Is wanting real leather for narcissists who can afford it, or is it a justified demand for quality investment?

Because everyone and their girlfriend's girlfriend seems to have this kind of jacket, I was keen to find ones which set themselves apart from the crowds. Hand-painted leather jackets immediately caught my eye as art and fashion merged into a stunning statement piece. I particularly like the assymetric designs, which goes well with the asymmetric zip. It makes me want to buy some gold spray paint and spray a Zelda emblem on the back of my denim jacket with a stencil.

As well as painted leather jackets, I found them embroidered, laser-cut and with funky inner linings. Which one is your favourite? If you have one, how do you style your biker jacket?

Layer up some vests and shirts under the leather jacket, wrap yourself up nice and cosy with a scarf and hat, and you're ready to battle the elements. For warmer weather, I think they look great over a maxi skirt or dress, or juxtaposed with a girly dress, for an interestingly stylish combination. Wind resist +10, badassery +20.

Friday, 15 March 2013

There was a little spring sun in the garden so I ran out to take outfit photos, and to see what this new hair bow I DIYed looks like on the back of my head. You know it is really hard to stand facing away from a mirror and hold another mirror at the right angle to see it.

This little halterneck dress was definitely one for summer, until I got the fat orange jumper to chuck over it.

The necklace was only £3 or so from Accessorize. There is just no point even walking into that shop because things are so ridiculously overpriced, just because they have nice designs. I originally bought it to be a reserve present for some unexpected birthday but I like it goes too well with this outfit so it's sort of mine now.

Wednesday, 13 March 2013

Wearing black and brown together: it's just against 'the rules'... or used to be. A lot of fashion faux pas have been debunked recently, like socks with sandals and denim on denim. I smell a new blog post series in the making.

As with all apparent faux pas, it's all about how you style it. It may feel weird mixing two base colours, but the trick is to treat the brown as if it's red or orange or anything but a base colour.

Items of clothing with both brown and black in them do half the work of mixing these two seemingly immiscible colours together in an outfit. The most obvious examples are animal prints like leopard or giraffe, though I am personally not a fan of animal prints.

Sunday, 10 March 2013

It's my niece's birthday today and everyone in our family finds the supermarket birthday cakes over nine thousand times too sweet. I don't even like icing that much. My sister, Mir, was adamant that the birthday cake be pretty, so of course we decided to make that cake.

I often make cake but I never decorate them. What I produce is literally a slab of sponge, and the most exciting thing about it is that it's got cinammon in it and sometimes some sultanas. (Tastes awesome though, which is the important thing to me!)

This cake contains many lies:

What appears to be buttercream is actually banana. Where the heck do they sell it? Is it in a tub, or in a packet? Or are you supposed to make it yourself? Banana is the right colour so I sliced it up to put on top of the jam.

We used raspberries instead of cherries because cherries are just crazy expensive this season. Not that raspberries are cheap! The real Portal cake looks like it's got flipping gobstoppers on it - the cherries are humungous.

The cake is evidently not black forest gâteau, like the one at the nearby bakery the Valve people based it on. I know nothing about types of cake and I can only make plain sponge.

Our other main shortcut is that we bought the icing ready-made, and just spread it on. The dark chocolate flakes, however, my sister painstakingly grated herself. Gotta love Cadbury's Bournville.

Mix together the sugar and margarine into a paste. Add eggs and mix until you've got this really disgusting-looking yellow liquidy stuff. The flour goes in last.

As well as the birthday cake, I made the world's ugliest cupcakes. I am just not a cake-decorating person. I appreciate beautiful cakes, but it usually involves obscene amounts of icing, and like I said, it's just far too sweet for me.

Go, Aragorn! Any look featuring the One Ring is excuse for me to quote some awesome poetry from Middle Earth. One of these days I will have to go to New Zealand.

One Ring: Mordor

Scarf: mum's wardrobe

Jumper: mum's wardrobe

Skirt: Malvin, TK Maxx

Gloves: Peacocks

Tights: China

Socks: China

Boots: Clarks

Anyway, I've been looking for a way to wear these over-the-knee legwarmer thingies that look like socks, which I got from the indoor market in China, along with some other hosiery. They basically are socks, just without the toe bit, for some unknown reason. And, of course, these new boots which were just £12 from a Clarks sale. My mum and I were literally incapable of exiting the shop without such a steal.

Apart from that, I didn't really know what I was going for with this outfit - it seems to be lacey, drapey, fringey and wooly all at the same time. I am really liking it though, despite the generally-avoided mixing of black and brown, which I usually regard to be immiscible.

The lace gloves I added on a whim, inspired by this look by Kerti P. I bought them a long time ago from Peacocks, which I haven't seen for a while - I suspect they've gone under. Along with a bead choker from Claire's, it's part of my collection of almost unworn gothic-flavoured pieces.

Thursday, 7 March 2013

I've had preposterous amounts of maths homework this week. Binomial expansion is so tedious, especially when the teacher gives
you a crash course in it, then leaves you to do the rest of the
chapter on your own. She's a good teacher; she's just in a rush because
we're behind. Also, she has maths jumpers. Only maths teachers can pull off maths jumpers. You know I'm right.

To those poor souls who got their January exam results today, my heart goes out to you. If you did well, congratulations! If not, I'm terribly sorry... unless you didn't revise. In that case, you deserve it! Muahahahahahahah...

_______________________________________

ABSOLUTELY PERFECT

By Jennine Jacob

It's been a very long time since I've done the Links à la Mode Roundup, and I have to say, it was a treat to see so many thought provoking posts. From perfectionism, Pinterest, diversity in fashion, frowning in fashion, and how technology (and bloggers) affect our shopping. We also had a heartwarming story from a blogger who found a vintage item like her mother had years ago (imagine that!), and some great DIYs. There's a lot of great stuff in here, so take a look and see you next week!

Wednesday, 6 March 2013

My favourite skirt length I think is just a bit shorter than knee-length. Midi, the intermediate between mini and maxi, funnily enough, can seem like an awkward length, but it's by no means unwearable.

If you've got a seemingly awkward-lengthed dress you salvaged from the pungent depths of a charity shop, or simply inherited from an older family member, try bringing it up to date with a leather jacket and badass boots like Nancy Z., or introduce a fresh new colour using belts, bags and necklaces like Leeloo P.

I found a lot of pleated chiffon midi skirts in my little hunt for looks. I don't usually wear long skirts or dresses day-to-day, but I love the free, romantic feel it gives me when I do. Sandals, subtly floral top and a satchel, and you're ready to go.

Sunday, 3 March 2013

I had a lot of fun making that choker tutorial, so I took photos of how I made this crochet lace hair bow as I went along, too. It requires no glue and very little sewing, and absolutely no neatness or fancy stitching methods.

YOU WILL NEED:

38cm of crochet lace trim, about 9cm wide

2 square pieces of the same crochet lace trim

hair barrette

gauze ribbon

needle and thread

Lengths are very approximate, and depend on how big a bow you're wanting. Those lengths are the ones I used to make mine. I got the crochet lace trim from the haberdashery in the local indoor market, the gauze ribbon from Hobbycraft, and the hair barrette from the kitchen bin. (For some reason, my mum didn't want it any more.) Pull or cut off whatever used to be on the hair barrette.

Lay the crochet lace in front of you and fold the two ends into the middle. Sew or tie the ends together so you end up with a loop, which I'm putting my hand into above.

Cut a generous length of the gauze ribbon and cinch in the middle of the loop as shown above, tying with a secure reef knot. Try to make the bow neat and symmetrical, and don't cut off the ends of the ribbon yet.

Now get those two square pieces of crochet lace and fold them across their diagonals to make two right-angled triangles. Sew them somehow to the back of the bow like above. Crude, but it looks pretty good from the other side!

The last thing to do is attach the barrette. Use the loose ends of that gauze ribbon to first tie the barrette to the middle of the bow with a secure knot again, after which you can trim the ends. Then, for good measure, get another bit of the gauze ribbon and tie around the whole bow and the barrette.

The barrette I used has a hole in each end, which I sewed directly onto the bow to further secure the barrette. Because the crochet lace is quite a holey material I actually tied the two ends of thread together rather than trust on a knot to stay in the material.

Congratulations - a winner is you! Now you have a huge fat ostentatious bow to put on the back of your head for others to admire while you wonder whether it's fallen off or fallen apart yet. How selfless of you.